C. C. Van Houten lived on a farm near Battle Creek, in Maple Township, Ida County, Iowa, and was identified with the agricultural interests of this place since 1882. Mr. Van Houten was born in Clarion County, Pa., April 24, 1856.
John Van Houten, his father, a native of the Keystone State, served during the Civil War as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He then resided near Cushing, Iowa. John married Miss Mary Ann Boyles, a native of Pennsylvania. They had seven children, 3 sons and 4 daughters.
C. C. Van Houten was reared on a farm in his native state. At the age of twenty, he came to Iowa and located in Cedar County, 3 years later went to Benton County, and in 1882 came from there to near Battle Creek. Here he owned 120 acres of land in Section 8, Maple Township, well improved with good buildings, fences, grove, orchard, etc., and under a high state of cultivation. His house was 16 x 24 feet, with an L, 14 x 20 feet, and there were two barns, one 24 x 32 feet, and the other 16 x 20 feet.
Mr. Van Houten was married at the age of twenty-seven in Muscatine, Iowa, to Lizzie Fricke, a native of Muscatine County, Iowa, and a daughter of August and Fredrica (Herwig) Fricke, the latter a native of Germany. They had four children: the first born died in infancy, Charles Leander, Homer P., Malcom D., and Orr Roy.